Presently, computerized request and analysis of data are handled in a variety of ways. An individual request may be handled on a case by case basis by the management information systems department, or a user may obtain the required data or analysis by using various programming languages. A user may also extract the data from a spreadsheet or utilize various types of query tools.
For in-depth data analysis, these options are often time consuming and frustrating to a user. These types of requests and analysis require the user to learn a programming language, understand and manage data structures, search through a long list of report/file requests, search through a long list of queries, learn query language syntax, and remember previously used steps in order to repeat a previously executed analysis. The required knowledge level limits the number of individuals able to analyze and/or request data.
Each of the above-mentioned methods of data request and analysis are normally utilized separately, often from different computing environments. This prevents users of computing systems and databases from completing an analysis in a timely fashion due to the time required to switch between computing environments. Present systems providing comprehensive access and analysis are normally supported from a single desktop computing environment utilizing modal, procedural query tools. In existing products an analyst constructs, executes and saves queries. A single analysis may require the construction of many queries, each of which must be saved, located and executed in the correct sequence when the analysis is repeated. With typical query tools, the business analyst's usual array of reports, files, and extract programs are replaced with an array of queries. Additionally, any path of reasoning taken during an analysis must be remembered when the analysis is repeated. Thus, a need has arisen for a data analysis and access system that provides a user the ability to analyze data without requiring in-depth data structure and query language knowledge.